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Two platforms served the new line via Merton Abbey to Tooting Junction station, with a third entering service on 1 November 1870 to serve the single-track West Croydon to Wimbledon Line.
The Tooting platforms were suspended from use between 1 January 1917 and 27 August 1923, at first as a wartime cost-saving measure. The line was eventually closed permanently to passengers on 3 March 1929[1] but continued in use for freight services until 1975, after which the track was eventually lifted and most of the platforms fenced off. Limited passenger access was maintained, however, for it was necessary to cross both platforms and the intervening trackbed to reach platform 3 and the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line. The wooden walkway initially laid for this purpose across the trackbed was eventually replaced with a raised earth walkway.
Access to the station buildings was via the single entrance on Rutlish Road. A public footpath, running alongside the line from a (now demolished) signal box at the Kingston Road level crossing, provided an alternative route for pedestrians.
Closure and Tramlink
Merton Park railway station during construction of Tramlink and prior to restoration as private residence
Merton Park station continued to serve the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line until its withdrawal from service after the last train on 31 May 1997 and conversion into a stop on the Wimbledon branch of the Tramlink network.[2]Merton Park tram stop now overlaps the site of the original station, the tram lines occupying the site of the trackbed and platform of the old West Croydon to Wimbledon Line.
The original station building has been converted into a private house, forming part of a small housing development covering some of the original station site.
Part of the nearby long public footbridge (crossing both lines to provide access to playing fields from Dorset Road) is now located at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway,[3][4] following its removal on closure of the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line.
